Food Labelling Requirements for the Spanish Market

Laura Murray, Madrid Office, Bord Bia – Irish Food Board

When it comes to preparing your product for launch into a new market, there are so many elements to take into account. The purpose of this article is to help you understand what is required in terms of food labelling and packaging when entering the Spanish market. Scroll to the end to see the full list of requirements.

With an ever-growing availability of food and beverage products, transparency and honesty are both increasingly important aspects for the modern consumer when choosing a product from this sector. One of the best ways to create a connection with your consumers is to make it easy for them to fully understand your product from the moment they see it in-store. Packaging and labelling are so important in this respect as they represent your brand story on-shelf. RX Bar, a US protein bar company, is a great example of the powerful impact that offering consumers transparency through product packaging and labelling can have.

In addition to storytelling, it is also important that your product pack and labels abide by the requirements of the country you are launching into. There is a wealth of information online relating to Spanish food labelling and packaging requirements but, as you would imagine, most of it is only available in Spanish. If you do happen to speak the language however, or know someone else in your company who does, it would be worth checking out the Spanish Government’s website, in particular this section on food safety.

If you don’t speak Spanish, don’t worry because we have highlighted the main points from Regulation 1169/2011 so that you know exactly what needs to be included on your food or beverage products before sending them to Spanish consumers.

List of Mandatory Pack / Label Mentions

1. Official product name
2. List of ingredients
3. Any ingredient or processing agent or that which is derived from a substance or product listed in Annex II (see regulation 1169/2011 above) that causes allergies or intolerances and is used in the manufacturing or processing of a food and continues to be present in the finished product, albeit in a modified form
4. Quantity of each ingredient or ingredient category
5. Net weight
6. Expiry date
7. Any special storage or usage instructions
8. Official name of the company and manufacturer
9. Country of origin
10. Method of use in cases where the absence of this information may make it difficult for the consumer to carry out the correct use of the product
11. With respect to beverages containing more than 1.2% alcohol, the exact alcoholic percentage by volume needs to be specified
12. Nutritional Information

The above list will need to be translated to Spanish in the majority of cases. If you have more specific questions, the EUR-Lex website has a lot of useful information (in English) regarding food labelling and packaging, and has different sections dedicated to topics such as GMO’s, infant foods, organic produce, and allergens etc.

For more information please contact bordbia.madrid@bordbia.ie and for media inquiries please contact press@bordbia.ie